Seed potatoes or not seed potatoes that is the question!

[the_snail]

Ok. Next year I am going to grow some potatoes that I have saved from spuds bought from my local supermarket also from my milkmans delivery of spuds as they are grown at a local farm.

I have grown supermarket spuds this year and have had really healthy plants and a good crop and they where planted in mid june.

So next year instead of main crop seed potatoes I will use supermarket varieties and see what I get.

Has anyone else grown spuds bought from the supermarket and had a good crop. Or do you just buy the seed potatoe?

The_Snail

[the_snail]

[Trenchboy]

How many times have you started peeling potatoes to find rotten/blighted sections?

The trouble with all shop bought spuds is that there is no certification that they are virus free, which the seed potatoes do usually come with.

Well done with the crop this year, but is it really worth the risk?

Having read so many threads in which allotmenteers bewail the loss of their potato crops, minimising the risk makes sense to me.

[aquilegia]

And also you don't know what variety they are. By buying certified seed you can pick are variety that is waxy or floury, quick to crop or long to keep, good in clay or sandy soil, resistant to blight or slugs. And most importantly you can pick a much tastier variety than the ones sold in the supermarkets.

Oh and they are really not that expensive. And probably much cheaper than planting cheap ones and losing your entire crop.

[the_snail]

I see your points but if you have a patch of weedy ground that needs clearing and you are not made of money then what have you got to loose? For you main harvest use seed potatoes, as I do for my new spuds in the summer, I also use them for main crop also. For that weedy bit of the allotment that does nothing I think it would be a good idea to do because it will clear up that section and you may get a crop from something that you would normally put in the bin if you potatoe is to small to peel. If you just use them to clean up your soil and you dig out ALL of the potatoes then you have got nothing to loose.

I have also saved eyes from potatoes and put them in pots and grown them on and planted them outside and had a reasonable crop like 5 spuds from each plant. Nothing to celebrate but it is something to think about and try.

The_Snail

[redimp]

I planted some eyes that fell off and got diddly.  :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

I saved my own seed last year, and not one of the Duke of Yorks has been rotten or blighted so far.I haven't started on the King Edwards yet.

[Looby Loo]

I found a bag of Anya in my veg basket in the spring that were covered with sprouty bits (d**n buy-one-get-one-free - never need that free one) so I planted them.  Pessimistic OH said "won't come to anything).

Just finished digging the last of the plants now.  They were lovely and only one potato with a little slug nibble.

I'll be doing the same again next year.

[wardy]

Why are OH's always pessimistic?  :)

[LesH]

    If you want to know about potatoes check out this site
   www.wcf-phoenix.co.uk Plenty of information     LesH

[real food]

Many supermarket potatoes have been sprayed with chemicals to prevent them sprouting. Therefore, if you try and use them as seed potatoes, they rot in the ground. This also applies to some supermarket shallots, as I discovered this year, when I tried some as an experiment.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've had Tesco potatoes sprouting many times!

[real food]

Some of my fellow plotters have tried using supermarket potatoes with disastrous results. You do not know if the supermarket potatoes have been treated with an anti-sprouting chemical when you buy with them. You should hopefully be alright if you use organic potatoes.